As you know, this website is aimed at amateur scientists. But
what is an amateur scientist? The following pages attempt to describe this
person and to give tips to those who wish to embark on this “career”.

For a long time, in the magazine "Scientific American" a column called “The
Amateur Scientist” was published. This column detailed experiments to be
conducted in the home using common and inexpensive materials. The term “amateur”
indicates someone who loves science and in particular experimental activities,
and not someone who carries out these activities in an inaccurate manner.

An amateur scientist is a person who loves science, or better still, someone who
is fascinated by it. Nevertheless, this person does not content themselves with
simply reading scientific magazines but wants to conduct experiments, build
instruments, carry out observations and even research. To be an amateur
scientist, therefore, two principal requirements are necessary: first of all a
marked interest in nature and science, and secondly a taste for experimental
activities.

When I began this website, the idea that I had
of the amateur scientist was that of a child, however, from the emails that I
received I soon realised that the proposed activities were appreciated by people
of all ages, including retirees.

Thus, the question of whether or not these adults were also to be considered
amateur scientists arose. Here the problem becomes complicated because with
their superior abilities and with time the adult can go well beyond the horizons
of a child and become an expert, can carry out activities for scientific
vulgarization, can collaborate with real scientists and, even though they are
not scientists within a scientific organisation or enterprise, can even carry
out original research activities and contribute to the advancement of science.

For adults, we can still use the term amateur
scientist, but on the basis of the level of skill reached we can also use other
terms such as: expert, popularizer, collaborator and in certain cases even
scientist or researcher. In any case, that which distinguishes the “amateur”
from the professional is not the quality of the activities performed, but the
fact that the amateur carries out these activities for passion and is not paid
while the professional is instead paid for their work. It is necessary, however,
to clarify that many professionals love their work and they also do it with
passion.

With respect to the amateur scientist, a true scientist
normally has a greater level of specialist knowledge and works at a research
centre where they can avail of huge funds and costly equipment. Our amateur
friend considers the conditions of the true scientist to be enviable. He would
also like to work in a research centre, but for some reason he cannot and so
must content himself with activities carried out on him own.

In any case, scientific activities carried out for enjoyment
at a young age often contribute to directing the person towards a scientific
career. Various scientists have said that performing experiments, such as those
proposed by some scientific magazines, as children was decisive in their
undertaking scientific studies and then working in the scientific field as
researchers.

It isn’t easy to establish with certainty if someone is born
an amateur scientist or if they become one. Some children are more curious than
others and these often ask many questions and never seem to tire of learning new
things. You can say that all children like playing however, while some limit
themselves to observing the toys, others take them apart to see how they are
made, and others still are fascinated by animals, plants and flowers and love
being surrounded by them. I am convinced that the making of an amateur scientist
is due in part to an innate curiosity and thirst for knowledge, in part to a
capacity to be amazed by the beauty of nature and in part to their first
experiences which can in some way satisfy some innate predisposition.

I believe that in order to render the remarks that I am about
to make less abstract, it would be useful to describe my own personal
experience. I think it is indicative enough of many other cases and can serve to
better understand how an interest for science and experimentation can arise in a
child.

I remember that I had not yet begun to attend school when I
found a red glass lens on the ground that had probably fallen from the pendant
of a child’s necklace. It was a hemispherical lens, slightly oval in shape, and
I used it to magnify and observe ants. I enjoyed watching insects a lot and it
was as I so intently observed these ants that an adult told me of the existence
of microscopes. From their description of these instruments I decided that I
would definitely buy one of these when I was an adult. In that period, I played
in flowering meadows and in the woods every day. I saw animals and beautiful
plants and I strongly felt the need for someone to explain something about those
marvels to me, but there was nobody that could give me these explanations. There
were only my playmates, and they knew as much as I did.

A few years later, after having extended my range of action,
every now and again I hung about in front of the windows of optics shops
admiring the microscopes and telescopes. For a small price, an optician loaned
me a microscope pen. It was very nice, but I had to give it back after a few
days. Then I bought a small microscope composed of a single lens that gave me a
magnification of approximately 20 times. It allowed the use of slides, but it
was little more than a toy and it only made me want a real microscope even more.
At the age of nine I began to put aside all the money I could and, with the help
of my brother, after a year I managed to buy a microscope equipped with
achromatic lenses. With this instrument we carried out enthusiastic observations
that regarded above all protozoa, but also insects and many other natural
subjects.

Observations using the microscope never failed to amaze me,
but it’s clear that they weren’t enough because I also got the idea of building
myself a telescope. Real telescopes cost so much for me that the idea of buying one
never even entered my mind. So, I searched for the lenses to construct one, only
I didn’t have the faintest idea how an instrument like this worked and
consequently I didn’t even know which lenses were needed.

Every Friday I went to the Piazzola, the flea market in
Bologna, to visit the stall of Mr. Pastelli, a hawker who, besides antiques and
old knick-knacks, also dealt in war relics. Often, amongst these objects there
were optical instruments such as pointing systems. In reality, I couldn’t
purchase even these, but I looked at them with great interest trying to
understand how they were made. At his stall, Pastelli also had the helmet of a
German soldier, inside of which he kept some gears, various pairs of pince-nez
glasses and a charcoal iron.

Every week I went to Pastelli to try to get some information
on how telescopes were made out of him, but he told me that he was busy with
customers, that in that moment he had things to do and he never told me anything
that could be useful to me. It was only after some years that I understood that
he didn’t have any idea how those instruments worked either, therefore he wasn’t
able to tell me. But I didn’t give up and I continued to insist. One day Mr.
Pastelli, in despair, picked up a pair of opera glasses to show them to me and,
while he handed them to me, the eyepieces fell to the ground. In this way, I was
able to see that in each tube of the binoculars there was a convergent lens in
front and a divergent lens behind (the fallen eyepiece). Thus, I immediately
purchased two eyeglass lenses similar in strength to those of the binoculars,
choosing from amongst those that Pastelli kept in the helmet, amongst the gears
and under the iron.

This is how my first telescope was created. That instrument
was made of a cardboard tube, in one of whose extremities I fixed a convergent
lens from a pair of pince-nez eyeglasses and another divergent lens of the
“glass-bottom” type. That telescope magnified greatly, but the field of vision
was so limited that framing anything with it was a real challenge.

All the same, I managed to see the craters on the Moon and
Jupiter with its satellites, but I was not satisfied because the useful field of
the telescope was too small and poorly defined. Even in a pirate film that I had
seen the telescope that the captain used gave a wide circular field with sharp
borders. Therefore, I returned one more time to Mr. Pastelli. However, this time
I only needed to glance at a pair of normal binoculars to understand that the
eyepieces were also formed of magnifying lenses. So, I bought a sufficiently
strong positive lens and I returned home.

The new telescope worked much better than the first. The
field was much wider, the magnification was greater, but I saw colours at the
edges of the objects that made the image less sharp. In order to remedy this
problem, I inserted a piece of card with a hole of approximately 15 mm in
diameter in front of the objective of the telescope and the situation improved
drastically. Observing the craters of the Moon and Jupiter with its satellites
was truly exciting. I also used that telescope for terrestrial observations, to
see distant birds and other things, but I saw everything upside down. With
plywood and two mirrors silver-plated with a silver nitrate-based solution I
made a system to turn the images the right way up. It worked!

In the same period, I built a camera obscura, photographic
cameras (into which light entered from all directions such that I had to rapidly
use up the roll of film, otherwise the photos were misty), I made gelatine
emulsions, I tried home-made films and other indescribable contraptions. I also
tried to construct microscopes using wood and cardboard tubes for the body. To
make them magnify more, I used a tube that was sometimes even a metre long. To
look through these microscopes, I had to stand on a chair. Every so often, under
its own weight the tube fell and made the objective fall onto the slide,
breaking it and provoking a catastrophe in the miniscule world that I was
observing.

Meanwhile, time passed rapidly, I continued to grow and every
day I learned new things. It was in this way that, on the occasion of the total
eclipse of the Sun of 1961, when I had not yet reached 17 years of age, that I
already had a nice self-built telescope equipped with a 60 mm achromatic lens,
an orthoscopic eyepiece, a device with a roof prism to turn the image the right
way up, a focusing device with a pinion and rack, all assembled with brass tubes
and fixed on a camera tripod.

I knew well that I couldn’t watch the eclipse directly using
the eyepiece as I would have burned my retina, so I used the telescope to
project the image of the eclipse onto a wall of the dining room. To darken the
room, I fixed a dark cover over the window and under this I placed the
telescope. In this way I saw an unforgettable spectacle: the discs of the Sun
and Moon as they slowly overlapped. When there was totality, the room was
plunged into darkness, but I clearly saw the disc of the eclipse which had a
diameter of approximately a metre on the wall and from which two bright orange
protuberances emerged. One of these fell back on the Sun forming a parabola.
Surrounding the eclipse, the sky was a deep blue with some lateral white clouds.
There were also swallows in flight and from their different dimensions it was
possible to understand that they were at different altitudes. I called my mother
who was working in the kitchen to come and see the spectacle and she was
enchanted.

During elementary and junior high school I had problems
paying attention and I tended to get distracted. At a certain point, I decided
to do something to improve my grades. In the first year of the technical
institute, to better understand the explanations in the books, I carefully
examined the diagrams, sometimes I studied repeating the paragraphs out loud and
I tried to do practical examples. In class, I sat in the front row to better
follow the lessons. In maths, I often volunteered to go to the blackboard to do
problems and to stay more attentive. My grades improved greatly and I became
convinced of the importance of practical activities in learning the lessons.
Probably, those that have problems with language learn better if they integrate
what little they can manage to hear and study with practical activities. For
these people, practice is an alternative to language for understanding things.
In any case, those that have difficulties with language will advance in their
studies using means other than listening and reading. Practical activities have
a beneficial effect also for normal children, increasing their interest in
school and improving their grades.

Carrying out practical activities is useful for students that
have problems paying attention. Some teachers know this and attempt to introduce
concrete cases, examples and small experiments into their lessons. With time,
the success achieved through practical activities creates a trust in the
children in acting concretely. In them, acting concretely becomes an important
path of knowledge, capable of effectively integrating learning through a
linguistic path. Normally, practical-experimental activities are also perceived
by the students as pleasant and gratifying, therefore as a true means of
expression as well as a means of learning.

We can better understand how with these premises, from
interest in scientific theoretical knowledge and from trust in practical
activities, a person can form in whom the spheres of saying and doing are well
integrated and who knows how to pass easily from projects to their realisation.
Instead, those that limit themselves to an abstract approach to things, tend to
have difficulties in relating solidly to reality.

All children enjoy working with their hands, so much so that
at school it is difficult to make them concentrate on purely verbal activities.
The school should seize all opportunities to allow their students to conduct
practical-experimental activities because these are seen as a game and arouse
great interest in the students towards the subjects dealt with and motivate a
more in-depth examination of these topics. Finally, to be successful with
practical activities improves their self esteem.

A young amateur scientist must avoid the paradox of
dedicating themselves to amateur activities to the point of neglecting their
schoolwork. Today, in order to carry out scientific research in any research
institution, public or private, a degree is indispensable. Therefore, the young
amateur scientist, in carrying out their amateur activities, should keep in mind
that their priority is to obtain that degree. Their observations and
achievements can be important for their preparation, but they should not occupy
so much time and energy that they jeopardize scholastic success. I am not saying
these things at random. In fact, as a boy, I was so interested in constructing
telescopes, microscopes and missiles that I missed a couple of years of junior
high school.

After junior high school, I enrolled in an industrial
technical institute precisely to learn to design and build instruments and
machines. That school was fantastic. For half of the time we were busy in the
laboratories or in the workshops of the institute, where we learned to melt
metals, to work steel bars with hammer and anvil after making them red hot in
the forge, to carry out the fundamental mechanical tasks such as working metals
with files, squares, calipers, gauges, to trace the pieces to be worked, to use
the lathe and the milling machine, to design gears and build them with the
appropriate hobbing machines etc. We also attended physics, chemistry and
electronics laboratories etc. From the theoretical point of view, maths,
physics, mechanical design and metallurgy took up an important part of the
course that, however, did not neglect the humanistic subjects such as literature
and history.

That school gave me the training that I was looking for. I
worked for a few years in a technical office as a designer of automatic
machines. After that, I was hired by a research centre. I wanted to continue my
studies and enrol in university, but I liked the work very much and I didn’t
manage to find the time to prepare for exams. I attended lessons for natural
sciences and sat only a few exams.

The type of education that I had received to this point was
essentially technical and consequently I felt the need for knowledge of the
humanistic type. So I attended paid lessons from a high school teacher who every
week for four years taught me the history of philosophy. This type of knowledge
helped me greatly in seeing things in a more general way, in observing the world
from different points of view. It also helped me to better formulate my problems
and to confront them more effectively. This subject, extremely important for our
spiritual development, should be taught in all schools and not only in high
school. I also bought books about the history of literature of different
countries which I read and I also read various books that these texts indicated
as important.

For work and for many years, I built scientific instruments,
I used high vacuum systems and above all I carried out metallurgy research on
special steels. Meanwhile, in my free time I constructed a panoramic
photographic camera and other instruments.

An amateur scientist should have two types of education, a
theoretical preparation on the subject on which he wish to work and a practical
training regarding certain construction techniques. To obtain the best results,
our friend should not neglect to equip themselves with an adequate theoretical
preparation. In fact, without knowledge, the amateur would be confined to a very
restricted sphere, to a purely aesthetic observation of nature or to a simple
pseudo-scientific craft. The ability to observe nature depends very strongly on
the knowledge that one possesses. One of the most important abilities that an
amateur must possess is that of knowing how to take care of their basic
education and of knowing how to find the specialised information that they need.
There are amateurs in certain fields that have achieved a high level of
knowledge. A famous case is that of an inmate of the American prison Alcatraz
sentenced to life in prison for murder who befriended a bird that posed on his
windowsill. He began to raise birds and to study ornithology and became a
recognised expert in that field.

For his theoretical education, an amateur scientist can begin
with studying high school texts and can then progress to university textbooks.
In order to do this, they can buy a “Student’s Guide to the … Faculty”. In these
guides, the various lecturers indicate the study programmes for their discipline
and the necessary texts, often commenting on these. For many research
activities, even amateur, a knowledge of maths and the processing of
experimental data or statistics is important.

Although extremely important, theoretical preparation is not sufficient. As I
have said, if you do not want to remain chained to abstract activities, you must
also possess a technical ability which at least permits you to interact with
reality. For example, if you want to build telescopes and other optical
instruments, you will need a certain theoretical knowledge of optics, but you
must also know the measuring instruments and fundamental metalworking
techniques.

Many times I have helped friends to construct microscopes. Some of them knew how
to use the principal tools for mechanical work while others, instead, were
terribly inexperienced and highlighted the importance of knowing how to use
these. For example, if you want to cut a steel bar, you must know how to direct
the iron saw otherwise the cut will be crooked and then you will have a hard job
removing the excess material with a file. Furthermore, you must avoid holding
the saw in a direction different to that of the initiated cut as you will bend
the “Z” blade and you will need to use an enormous amount of energy to make the
blade move, also risking breaking it and injuring yourself. Filing a piece of
steel to obtain a plane is a difficult job for those not trained, but it is also
one of the most common operations to carry out.

How can you learn metalworking techniques? If you know a retired worker with
experience in mechanics, ask them to give you some lessons, they will be happy
to do it. You could also ask a blacksmith to give you some lessons on forging
and workbench skills with the saw, file, square, callipers, drill etc. Another
way is to refer yourself to a technical institute to find a teacher willing to
give you paid private lessons on the principals of workbench skills, how to make
measurements in mechanics, how to trace the pieces to work, what the principal
characteristics of metals are, how to use the lathe, how to plan in mechanics,
how to make designs (by hand, with a ruler and square, with a CAD programme).

Dexterity is a gift that some people possess in uncommon measure. I remember a
friend of mine that didn’t do very well at school, but was a magician with
mopeds. Often, he repaired mine and I remember that while he worked and he told
me what to do to assist him, I asked myself how he knew the job of mechanic so
well since nobody had ever taught it to him.

Unfortunately, passion for experimental activities is not
very diffuse among people, therefore, an amateur scientist usually carries out
his activities alone. In this way, he tends to isolate himself and, given our
sociable nature, ends up suffering as a result of this situation. It is
necessary for him to maintain good relations with friends and family, keeping an
important but not excessive space for their experimental activities.

An amateur scientist tends to speak to others about what he
is doing, but the majority of his friends and colleagues are interested neither
in its experiments nor in scientific subjects in general. Their principal
interests are their career, sport, women and little else. For this reason, our
friend often finds himself in difficulty because he is bored by the
conversations of others and cannot speak about its own projects and problems
because others are not interested and also because they would be made fun of.
When he happens to find a friend that shares the same interests, he can finally
begin a profitable collaboration and friendship.

After the advent of the internet, it is easier to find people
that share our interests and to communicate with them. Newsgroups are places
where you can discuss your preferred topic with tens or hundreds of other
people. Mailing lists are organised around a list of email addresses and each
one includes numerous people that share a certain interest.

Often, the amateur scientist is opposed by their own family
that doesn’t like to see them wasting their time with useless experiments or
worse still throwing away the money needed to buy costly equipment. Of
historical fame was Xanthippe, the wife of Socrates, noted for being a real
pain, but who was very probably a practical person like the majority of women
and didn’t like the fact that her husband spent all his time in the town square
having odd conversation with the Athenians instead of taking care of his family.

What is there to say about the materials and tools lying all
over the house? On this subject, a war often breaks out during which these
materials are regularly made to disappear to keep the house presentable in case
guests come over. When our friend looks for them, he don’t find them anymore,
or he find them well hidden under the stairs or in the broom closet.

The life of the amateur scientist is hindered not only by the
lack of understanding of the family, but also by difficulties encountered in the
neighbourhood. That guy that makes those strange contraptions and puts them in
the garden is normally seen by the neighbours as an eccentric person, if not
with a few screws loose. When there is a power cut in the neighbourhood,
everybody looks at them suspiciously. Imagine that you are fond of amphibians
and that you have dug a little pond to offer these charming animals a refuge and
a place where they can reproduce in peace. Knowing that some amphibian species
love to move around amongst the grass looking for insects, you let the grass
grow. This is also useful for having insects and flowers to observe under the
microscope. While you observe your garden, full of flowers and tall grass,
comparing it to a natural oasis and considering it to be very close to a
Paradise on Earth, you realise that your next-door neighbour is also observing
it, but not with a very good-natured expression.

Your neighbour’s lawn? It looks like a carpet! The ground has
been so well levelled that it looks like a snooker table. The grass is all of
the same species and it is all of the same height. There isn’t a flower or a
different plant to be seen. In fact, if a foreign plant (coming from my jungle)
dares to invade that garden, it is immediately uprooted. If a frog should happen
to cross over into that garden, you would see it walk on tip-toe.

Every so often, especially in the evening, I see my neighbour
use a dustpan to throw something into my pond. I know that it is a “frightening”
newt or a “horrible” salamander that got lost in their basement. The important
thing is that those amphibians that risked dying found safety in my pond.

Usually one imagines that the amateur scientist is a child, but this isn’t
true: the number of adults that carry out amateur activities in the scientific
field is far greater than the number of children. For example, a relatively low
number of children conduct astronomical observations, whilst numerous adults
dedicate themselves to this activity.

I have noted that the activities of the amateur scientist do not involve only
children but also adults, some of whom have children or grandchildren to whom
they can give the instruments they make as gifts, others love constructing
something for themselves. A friend of mine who is close to retirement has
constructed with great care a stereoscopic microscope based on one of my
projects and at the end he attached a plate to the instrument engraved with his
name and the date of completion.

Another preconception is that which sees the amateur
scientists as a figure eternally in the background, someone who never does
anything useful. Instead, some amateurs have made important contributions to
scientific progress. For example, Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) was an
ordinary person, without any scientific training, but he had a bizarre passion
for microscopes, bizarre above all for those times. He was one of the first to
construct and use microscopes and with these instruments he was the first to see
and describe microbes, protozoa, etc. He communicated his observations to the
“Royal Society of England” and to the “French Academy”. He constructed tens of
microscopes and his contribution to the science of the time can well be
described as exceptional. We could ask ourselves what professional scientists
were doing in the meantime.

Another famous amateur scientist was Guglielmo Marconi
(1874-1937), passionate about phenomena linked to electromagnetism and ended up
inventing the wireless telegraph. That device was immediately decisive in
communicating with distant ships and for saving human lives during shipwrecks.
This important discovery led the way for the invention of the radio, which was
however achieved by one of his collaborators.

I don’t know if Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) can be considered
an amateur scientist, it is a fact that he initially had to work at home as he
wasn’t well accepted in the academic circles of his time. He conducted numerous
physics experiments and first used the telescope for astronomical observations.
He founded the experimental method in a time in which they were limited to
interpreting the writings of the ancient writers and he supported the necessity
of expressing the laws of physics in mathematical form, happily uniting theory
and practice.

The list of amateur scientists (or non-professionals) who
have become famous would be extensive. The important thing is to understand
that, even without having attained academic qualifications and without working
in a scientific structure, it is possible to carry out research activities that
can reach very high levels. From all this, we certainly can’t conclude that
within every amateur scientist there is a true scientist, only misunderstood.
Neither can we conclude that scientific progress is due exclusively to amateurs.
We know well that it is instead due in large part to the work of innumerable
scientists and only in a small but not unimportant part to some good and
fortunate amateurs.

Even though they are not zero, the probability of an amateur
making an important discovery is extremely low. It is therefore better to avoid
setting objectives that are too ambitious as these would only give rise to
frustration. The majority of amateurs are content with activities through which
they can express their interests, that gratify them and with which they can
broaden their horizons. The knowledge that they gain can also be useful at the
local level, by means of small conferences or lessons at school. As we will see
further on, amateur scientists can also contribute to true scientific research.

Can a real scientist, one that works in a research
laboratory, be an amateur scientist? If we compare the term amateur with the
term professional, this would not be possible. However, the majority of
scientists love their work and they delight in carrying it out. Furthermore,
many authentic scientists are passionate about didactics, the communication of
science and even about scientific games. Famous is the photograph that pictures
two great scientists: Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr as they make a spinning top
turn and amusedly observe it. Many scientists have a deep love for scientific
research and they carry this out as though it were an exciting game. They share
a delight for research and knowledge with amateur scientists. Therefore, there
is normally comprehension on the part of real scientists for amateurs and they
often help them.

The activities of the amateur scientist can be an
introduction to becoming a true scientist. In fact, as I have said, many
scientists remember approaching scientific studies thanks to the amateur
activities offered by scientific magazines.

Fate dictates that the amateur scientists are always
searching for materials that they can’t find anywhere, or for the way to carry
out a certain very expensive activity, but without having the necessary
equipment and without spending any money, or at least very little money.

For example, a child that wants to build a telescope must
procure an achromatic objective, an eyepiece, aluminium or brass tubes, a
focusing device, a device for turning the image the right way up etc.
Unfortunately, to buy these components they cannot go to the first shop they
happen across. It will not even be sufficient to go to a hardware store. Not
even optics shops that sell telescopes sell the lenses for constructing them. It
could happen that we see them going around some flea market in the hope of
finding a stall that deals in optical components. It will be easier for them to
find something in a rare photography market, or in an even rarer astronomy fair.

Another mode for procuring the necessary components is to buy
them by correspondence from a retailer whose address can be found in astronomy
magazines. Beginning with these magazines, our friend can approach a group of
astrophiles and can obtain a lot of information regarding retailers of optical
components.

As I have said, whoever wants to construct an instrument
often finds that they need to carry out some task that requires specialised and
expensive equipment. For example, if you want to build a telescope, it is
necessary to make joins between the objective and the main tube and between the
main tube and the eyepiece tube. These tasks require the use of a lathe. You
could go to a lathe turner, but this will be very expensive. Not everybody has a
lathe, but if you are interested in building equipment often, having a lathe is
important. There are smaller lathes available and second-hand lathes that cost
little.

Whatever your field of activity is, it is almost always
necessary to possess the fundamental tools, without which you can’t do anything.
For example, if you are interested in pottery, you will need at least a potter’s
wheel and a kiln. If you dedicate yourself to electronics, an oscilloscope can
be indispensable, and so on.

This fundamental equipment will help you on many occasions,
but there will always be some particular task that will require an instrument
that you do not have. At this point, your search for a friend or a craftsman who
possesses that tool will begin. For example, you need a nice graduated scale?
You should refer yourself to a metallic plate workshop that will make one for
you. You need to aluminium-coat the parabolic mirror that you have just finished
polishing and that is destined for your telescope? You should go to someone that
has a high vacuum system, and it won’t be convenient for you to equip yourself
with this tool only to use it a couple of times in your lifetime.

To be constantly searching for materials or components that
are difficult to find, for special equipment, for particular workings is thus
the eternal fate of the amateur scientist. Asking around, especially of friends
that share your interest or of amateur associations, you can find the shop or
craftsman that can be useful to you. Obviously, keep note of these addresses in
case you need them again. The address book of suppliers, compiled over the
years, is one of the most precious tools of the amateur scientist. How many
times have I gone to look for sheet metal, bars, steel, brass, aluminium and
plastic tubes. Sometimes the shop wasn’t there anymore or it had moved, but
nobody could tell me where. Old craftsmen die and with their death the activity
that they carried on disappears. Even the rare shops capable of producing
chemical substances at a certain point disappear, leaving us orphaned and in the
grip of anguish (“now where do I find another shop like that?”).

You will soon discover with a certain sense of relief that
you are not the only one to have compiled such an address book, but that some of
your friends also have one. One of the most fruitful activities is the exchange
of these address with other amateurs. More than once I have done this exchange
with friends, obtaining a precious integration of my address book. Besides an
address book of suppliers you should also keep one detailing which friends share
your interests, of experts, of consultants and of websites. You should also keep
note of the procedures that you have carried out to resolve certain technical
problems, for future reference.

Those that know mechanics know that only mechanisms
well-conceived from the kinematic point of view work well, therefore the ability
to conceive simple and effective structures and mechanisms is important.
Usually, you learn this skill in technical institutes with a mechanical
orientation. For other subjects, you must identify other types of school.
Another important source of mechanical solutions consists of analogous
instruments built today or, better still, of past instruments that are often the
fruit of simpler and more accessible manufacturing techniques. There are also
textbooks, rare to tell the truth, that gather designs of mechanical devices and
gadgets. As nobody looks for these, there are out of print and sometimes they
can be found on the internet on sites that deal in used books.

The majority of self-built instruments don’t work on the
first try, and often not even on the second! Not even the single pieces of which
these devices are made usually work at the first attempt. This is due to
planning errors, errors in the definition of the working procedure of each
piece, inaccuracies in their construction, modifications of the initial project
etc.

Often, the working of a piece must be done together with the
working of the piece upon which it is to be mounted. If, for example, you want
to join two plates with screws and you make the screw holes in each of these
plates separately, it will be difficult to assemble the pieces as the holes will
not match. You should first make a hole in the two pieces, mount one on the
other, tighten the first screw, orientate the pieces, fix them, and then make
the second hole in both pieces and only at this point should you fix the second
screw. If you make a mistake, you will have to throw away one or both pieces.
Unfortunately, errors have the habit of showing themselves only after they have
been made. Sooner or later, you will realise that inanimate things have a kind
of life of their own and that they are also spiteful!

Even the simplest mechanical tasks are dangerous. If you are
not careful the saw can slip, the screwdriver can get away from you, the hammer
can miss the nail. In all these cases, you risk being injured. If you use a
lathe, the risks are much greater and the care that you use should be
proportionate. The use of chemical substances can be extremely dangerous. An
amateur scientist should be neither unprepared nor rash, but should always know
how to avoid hurting themselves or others and how to avoid provoking damage. One
of the principal precautions is that of avoiding using substances that you are
not familiar with, of avoiding using tools that you don’t know how to use.
Whenever necessary, you must get help from an adult expert. Even the most
harmless things can reveal themselves to be damaging if they are not used with
the necessary caution. An amateur scientist is not irresponsible, but is a
person that always knows how to control the situation, taking all necessary
precautions.

Projects for the construction of an instrument or for the
realisation of an experiment or the carrying out of research are very important
for the amateur scientist.

YOUR OWN PROJECTS
Sometimes the amateur has their own idea and also develops the project. We’ll
take the usual case of the telescope. Often, astrophiles plan on their own,
adapting the project to fit their needs. Once the first project has been carried
out, it is possible that our friend wants to realise others. On this subject,
every new idea is welcome. It is necessary however to say that it is not easy
for one person to have many ideas and to develop many projects. Therefore, you
can refer to projects already done.

PROJECTS DEVELOPED BY OTHERS
By now, there are numerous sources of projects for amateur scientists. First of
all, I will cite those that at times are found in specialist publications, such
as astronomy magazines, where it is possible to find projects for the
construction of sundials, how to attach a photographic camera to a telescope,
how to photograph falling stars etc. There are innumerable projects for
electronic circuits proposed by electronics magazines. Books on physics,
chemistry and biology experiments for children are important. Some of these
books are aimed at teachers and in certain cases they supply projects that are
integrated with the school curriculum. In Anglo-Saxon countries it is possible
to find hundreds of texts of this kind. Recently, on the Internet, tens of sites
dedicated to amateur activities in the scientific field have appeared. As you
know, this very site was created with the aim of supplying projects to amateur
scientists.

Projects developed by others are not always to be followed to
the letter, but are to be redeveloped to take into account the materials and
components that you manage to find and your particular needs. Realising projects
of this type you will learn many techniques that will give you new skills.
Often, these experiences will open the door to new techniques, new fields of
knowledge and new dimensions.

On many occasions an amateur can help a researcher in his
work. There are many research activities that require the collaboration of
volunteers. In astronomy, volunteers are sought for the SETI project aimed at
the identification of any possible signal of extraterrestrial civilisation. For
amateur astronomers there are opportunities to collaborate in the identification
of asteroids and comets that could threaten the Earth. Numerous astrophiles scan
the sky to be the first to sight an approaching comet and to be able to name it.
Many archaeologists, anthropologists and palaeontologists avail of the help of
volunteers. In the environmental field, the monitoring activities of threatened
species carried out by volunteers is very useful. Working in a group is very
useful for exchanging information on methods and techniques and for learning
from others. Often, the relationship between parents and children is rather
hostile. Carrying out a project with your children is a precious occasion for
spending time together, for sharing an interest, for collaborating and
interacting in a way that is peaceful and gratifying for everyone.

It’s perfectly normal to want other people to participate in
the activities that give us pleasure and that enrich us. It is very gratifying
to mix with a group of people that share our interests. Displaying your
achievements in expositions and fairs is a way to let many other people know
your achievements and to communicate your interests. In certain fairs, it is
also possible to sell your products. In many cases, your amateur activities can
be useful for writing an article to submit to a magazine or for giving lessons
in schools. Whoever works in a youth centre can propose experimental activities,
arousing great interest and a high level of participation on the part of the
young people. It can happen that a young person in the neighbourhood, learning
of your activities, asks to take part. In this case, it is important to obtain
the consent, and also possibly the participation, of one of the parents. After
this, you can help the child with projects in the field where they show greatest
curiosity and skill.

The definition of “Amateur Scientist” as a person who loves
science and who seeks to carry out experimental activities or to build
instruments, now appears in a fuller meaning. I have not described the potential
fields in which it is possible to operate at the amateur level, but you can
understand that they are innumerable and each one has endless possibilities.
Those that see in themselves the figure of amateur scientist can find in the
“FUN SCIENCE GALLERY” a series of experiments aimed at them. These are projects
like those that I would like to have had as a boy, when I had a great desire to
carry out scientific activities, without however having anyone to tell me what
to do and how to do it. I hope that these activities can also be useful in
schools to raise the interest and improve the grades of students in the
scientific disciplines.